JadedWriter
Member
I also just realized that Meelo must have inherited Sokka's sexism.
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The Legend of Korra: Book 4 |OT2| ALL HAIL THE GREAT UNITER
- Thread starter Toa TAK
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He fucking growled.
JadedWriter
Member
Numerous times. Kuvira unlocked the mans hidden blood lust.
JadedWriter
Member
Tenzin turned Pema into a brood mare.
Kai would be at the top.
Bataar and Kai are the big ones.
Precisely. He should've been relegated to another annoying sibling like Ikki.
True.
Meelo
Kai
Baatar Sr. (the dad)
If you want to make a list of folks who could be cut from the story and somehow making the quality better, add Mako to the top of that list.
Rohan, but he never got as much screentime as either Meelo or Kai.
All we needed to know was that Rohan existed and was growing up. That was at least done right.
No one needs to be cut.
JadedWriter
Member
I consider Varrick to be a very casual villain. He only pulled the shit he did because he saw a profit from it. I think the technical term is "punch clock villain." After season 2 he was just a quirky affable genius lunatic.
Meelo did, considering an episode could only run for 20ish minutes and nothing of substance (exposition, humor, lore, etc) was gained from his screentime.
Yup. They just needed less screentime or an actual resolution (for Kai at least) or an actual arc with Meelo with less fart jokes.
Biggest problem was:
I. Side plot when there wasn't enough time for main plot.
II. The writers squandering time that could have been used effectively.
I do think them adding more characters when the main characters already lacked time was baffling. But I still say the issue was the way they handled plot. It was all about time management.
I. Side plot when there wasn't enough time for main plot.
II. The writers squandering time that could have been used effectively.
I do think them adding more characters when the main characters already lacked time was baffling. But I still say the issue was the way they handled plot. It was all about time management.
Nah, Kai needs to be cut. Everything he did aside from that thief nonsense should be given Jinora. Bataar was just a bad character who acted like a raging dick for no true reason. His "arc" isn't even that.
I felt meelo occupied his role and lane just fine. I would no sooner cut him than Bumi or Kya.
I felt meelo occupied his role and lane just fine. I would no sooner cut him than Bumi or Kya.
TacticalFox88
Banned
In his case he needed to be cut, simply because Zaheer needed those 2 episodes. He's the one case I def feel he needs to be cut. Although I can see people saying he served his purpose with Jinora even if that was pushed to the back.
Tal Shiar Agent
Member
Well I guess not farting to save Tenzin during the final battle could be considered character growth.
No one needs to be cut. They needed less screentime dedicated to them.
Meelo makes sense to exist because more airbenders were needed at the time before harmonic convergence. Ikki barely existed beyond that and she was charming when she did pop up to interact with other characters like Jinora to give her a hard time like siblings do, as well as that one part where she gets kidnapped and befriends the kidnappers. That was fine. One or two scenes like this for Mako would've been perfect, but he was given too much.
Kai's introduction implied he'd be actually important considering he was a new character we discover who can airbend. If this show had more episodes within a book, I can see him being a one-off character the team meets, and then the plot continues on, similar to how ATLA handled most of its filler. However, nothing came out of that except confirmation that he and Jinora were a couple.
Bumi and Kya made sense because Aang wanted to have another Airbender exist. It's kind of fucked up that he and Katara had kids in order to have an airbender, but that's a conversation filled with WAY too many questions and guessing like what would happen if their first kid was an airbender. If anything, considering their involvement in Book 3, I figured we'd at least see them at the end of Book 4. Kya coming back from some vacation or something. Don't know. Both of their arcs were pretty much resolved in Book 2.
I was thinking the same thing in a toungue and cheek way. I was expecting him to fart to save Tenzin. I think there's a problem when that's all the character is about and the audience expects that from a character.
Meelo makes sense to exist because more airbenders were needed at the time before harmonic convergence. Ikki barely existed beyond that and she was charming when she did pop up to interact with other characters like Jinora to give her a hard time like siblings do, as well as that one part where she gets kidnapped and befriends the kidnappers. That was fine. One or two scenes like this for Mako would've been perfect, but he was given too much.
Kai's introduction implied he'd be actually important considering he was a new character we discover who can airbend. If this show had more episodes within a book, I can see him being a one-off character the team meets, and then the plot continues on, similar to how ATLA handled most of its filler. However, nothing came out of that except confirmation that he and Jinora were a couple.
Bumi and Kya made sense because Aang wanted to have another Airbender exist. It's kind of fucked up that he and Katara had kids in order to have an airbender, but that's a conversation filled with WAY too many questions and guessing like what would happen if their first kid was an airbender. If anything, considering their involvement in Book 3, I figured we'd at least see them at the end of Book 4. Kya coming back from some vacation or something. Don't know. Both of their arcs were pretty much resolved in Book 2.
I was thinking the same thing in a toungue and cheek way. I was expecting him to fart to save Tenzin. I think there's a problem when that's all the character is about and the audience expects that from a character.
I think it stemmed from not knowing what to do with the main 'Team Korra' cast as people. Mako and Bolin were already kind of interchangeable in terms of utility (much closer in power set, personality, and ability than say Katarra and Toph), and take away the romance angle from Mako and the two of them are almost like hired muscle for Korra or something.
That was actually one of the biggest surprises in the finale, I didn't except him to use his legs to airbend. It didn't make up for all the times we had to deal with his fartbending though.
That's a good point about Mako and Bolin.
On that note, in Book 1 and 2, did anyone NOT buy any of Team Avatar's friendship?
Granted, ATLA had characters bullshitting around, but that's what friends do.
Yes. I wrote a lengthy post on Reddit on how TLOK team avatar was so disappointing and bizarre. I feel it was a story about mis-matched friends growing apart over time and eventually finding their place/home with other people.
But that plot was never developed. And it feels more like mis-managed time then an intentional choice. I thought the ending as far as the team went was actually quite depressing. Makos pledge of loyalty to Korra also felt so odd to me considering they all drifted apart.
In hindsight Korra spent close to 50% of the series away from her team. And 50% of the series the team were off doing things on their own. We saw this start In Book 2 and repeat in Book 4. Really bizarre. Friends growing apart over time is realistic. But the plot didn't feel supported. And it was just sad to me. In the end it felt like the audience had drifted apart from the show and we were denied closure from these cast of characters.
What does Kai do to justify his existence?
When he's introduced, you thought Korra would become his mentor, to the benefit of her characterization and his. You thought you'd see Kai find family in team Avatar and travel with them, becoming his own person in the process. But he's shipped off to the Western Air temple and spends the remainder of the season subverting Jinora's personal story. She's damseled three entire times so that Kai can play the hero, yet somehow we're supposed to buy that Jinora is worthy of airbender tattoos at season's conclusion.
Then the man ceases to exist almost entirely in season 4.
When he's introduced, you thought Korra would become his mentor, to the benefit of her characterization and his. You thought you'd see Kai find family in team Avatar and travel with them, becoming his own person in the process. But he's shipped off to the Western Air temple and spends the remainder of the season subverting Jinora's personal story. She's damseled three entire times so that Kai can play the hero, yet somehow we're supposed to buy that Jinora is worthy of airbender tattoos at season's conclusion.
Then the man ceases to exist almost entirely in season 4.
I think at best, he introduces the new air nation plot and guides the audience into the idea that new people ended up getting powers. But we already had Bumi for that. So really, nothing. Certainly not justifying two episodes taken from Zaheer. Who had the potential to be the series best villain.
I didn't buy their friendship at all, Asami especially should have dropped them like a hot rock in a middle of summer after that bullshit in season 1, but apparently it seems like she has no other friends?????
I don't know what the fuck was going on there.
i have to wonder about how much studio interference was in this show. i don't want to blame all the bad stuff on nick, but 'make sure there's a male character in your action show and he's the same age as the target audience' kiiinda sounds like a production note.
Actually Asami makes sense.
After she goes through what she does with her father at the end of season 1 she has no family left and she could and probably does view Korra and Mako as her family and would hold tight regardless of Mako being a douche.
Holy shit, I never thought about this.
Yo...
Yeah, that definitely makes sense. However, at the time, did we have anything that showed this? In Book 3 and 4, the connection is there with Asami, but back in Book 1 and 2 though...
I can understand that, but surely Asami has other people she can hang around with and get closer too instead of the people who dicked her around?
I refuse to believe that someone with the social status of Asami has no friends outside of team Avatar.
m_shortpants
Member
People are going to hate me for this, but I didn't even think Mako was a big douche in season one. All that was just love triangle bullshit and teenage romance. It happens. Is it interesting? No, but Bryke don't really have a track record of writing believable romance as it is.
My problem with Mako was season two where he gets back with amnesia Korra after hooking up with Asami or whatever. That literally made no sense. But then again, Lin, Korra, Bolin, and even Asami all seem to have had brain aneurisms in that season. Lin is the world's dumbest police chief. Korra is mentally unstable and violent. Bolin sexually assaults Ginger. Asami is too dumb to see how she is getting played by Varrick.
All the characters are written so badly in season two that I just sort of dismiss it all. I try not to think about it.
Yep.
Her company was also on the brink of bankruptcy and even considering all the bullshit that went down someone like Mako was invaluable in helping her in Book 2. The company it really was the last vestige of anything good from her father, and filled with memories of her mother, not too mention that it was the bed rock of the only world she had every really known and she was literally going to lose everything without it. They could have played up how the stigma against Future Industries for being a chief backer of the Equalist movement also extended to the ostracization of Asami herself from the high end social circles she use to be a part of that were looking to save face.
But she also never struck me as a character that was overly concerned with having close friends prior or within her 'social status', maybe her status (and zeal for her hobbies) prevented her from doing so. She seemed like the beautiful, genius inventor, who probably was too 'wild' (read: offbeat from most people her age from the rich families) AND 'eccentric' (read driven) for most people she could be friends with in her social standing within the city. Most prospective friends were probably apathetic trust fund babies that also had to be considered along politcal/power lines like royalty. People like Korra, Mako and Bolin being from 'a different world' probably allowed her to be friends with them far easier to be honest. No expectation, no large scale company, political, presentation considerations, Korra is the Avatar but their 'worlds' were all worlds apart. She never needed to worry about tiping the hand of Future Industries with the gang, or things like that.
People love to drop that sexual assault thing for Bolin and I roll my eyes every time. His character is truly terrible because he acts like a stuck up antagonistic dick for a solid half of the season, thereby making almost all of his scenes useless. That ginger kiss scene barely registers.
They're not even real loners, it's just that their lives outside of Team Avatar wasn't even defined.
Toph was a true loner, as well as Aang given their situations prior to joining team avatar.
m_shortpants
Member
They could have done so much if they spent a little bit on Mako and Bolins gang connections or something. Instead the back story we get is them meeting their family in Ba Sing Se, which wasn't bad, but I would've liked to see it myself rather than be told about it.
Asami I already covered, but she at least had legitimate empathy and caring to people in addition season 2's circumstances making her desperate to hold onto people she had been through a lot with on top of them having a practical use in helping her. Her empathy after all is said and done makes me really buy her learning to be friends with Korra (and/or KorrAsami). The whole Korra/Asami friendship makes sense really.
Mako and Bolin were two homeless thiefs who grew up with nothing and only managed to (barely) get by through factory work and basically having no choice but to be Pro Benders to have a roof over their heads. They were too busy being exploited by the system to have anyone but each other and probably had a lot of trouble meeting people outside of that system whom they felt they could trust based on how prevalent the 'criminal element' was in their rung of the city and their 'past history' being known. They would be very careful about potentially being pulled back in, or 'getting involved' so to speak.
Korra spend her ENTIRE upbringing being isolated from essentially everyone but her family and being trained in a remote part of the world for years. She probably got out a little bit (read barely) for some local events were she would full fill her duty as Avatar, but again, isolated, and emotionally stunted.
I do buy their interactions in Book 1. I mean let's be honest here, circumstances bring them together, they're all young, hot, and powerful/interesting from an outside perspective. Korra is attracted to Mako from the outset AND Asami (even if it was not sexual at the time, or Korra did not realize it was also being potentially sexual).
I think they tried to go straight 100% and found themselves being worked 24/7 to get by, but it would have been interesting to see some of that.
Infinite Justice
Member
Even with these limitations (which i honestly don't believe was much of a huge thorn since it allows the current "breaks barriers" bullshit narrative) i thought they could have done it better and no it doesn't need direct focus to be good either. Especially since these seasons were more "organic" with each other so it could have been peppered more (hell it really started after a fucking time skip that no one fucking mentions, almost like everyone was frozen Captain America style).
Also with the LBGT community being desperate it looks like a "we'll take it since we hardly get shit anyways" when it really shouldn't be that way.
I would honestly place Korra in that "douche" list based on what she did tbh but hey Main Character plot armor and all that.
That Dude John
Member
You know, I thought they were gonna go that direction when they made Mako a detective.
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